“Price-Matching” – Are You a Free Spy for the Competitors?

             The competition for customers is becoming more intense and prevalent - if nothing else would persuade people to shop until they drop then at least the “price-matching” clause should prevail against the competitors. Thus, buyer, be aware of unpaid labor you are providing to corporations on this tough labor market. The ecstatic consumers will be actively haggling with Customer Service without realizing how they are actually working as free market-spies for the companies, or even worse - are helping to maintain the cartel discipline, that otherwise would cost thousands of research dollars.
             In the contemporary world many companies have highly diversified product portfolios to preserve the risk averseness; consequently, it complicates the competitiveness capability on the market, especially the assurance of profit-maximizing prices. Nobody is interested of pricing at marginal cost; the objective is to earn as much profit as possible for the effort of manufacturing and vending the merchandise to the consumers. Subsequently the question raises how to monitor the prices on the market to guarantee that your company is not left in the dry or how to convince your competitors to price favorably to your business, way above your variable and fixed costs?

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